McCabe took a pass from Derek King at the top of the right faceoff circle and fired a low shot that snuck between Hirsch's legs for his second goal of the season.
"Kenny (Jonsson) took the puck end to end, which is a great way to start the play, and dished off to Kinger," McCabe said. "Kinger stopped and it seemed like the flow was going to Kinger. He fed me a great pass and I happened to put it through the legs. Their man must have lost me and I got the puck and put it in the net. ... It was a great feeling to get a win like that, in overtime. An overtime goal is probably my biggest goal as a pro."
King and linemate Zigmund Palffy each had a goal and two assists for the Islanders, who broke a 10-game winless streak in overtime (0-3-7). New York's last overtime win was a 5-4 triumph over Buffalo on Jan.30.
"I saw everybody collapsing and I just wanted to turn it back up and take a look to see who was going to the net," King added. "I heard 'Caber' scream and I just happened to find him coming through the middle nicely and he made a great shot. That was the difference tonight, that's what we've got to do."
The Isles, who were behind 4-3 heading into the third period, won when trailing after two periods for the first time in 67 games since Jan. 21, 1995.
"I feel really good about a lot of things that happened here tonight and I feel we needed a break," said New York coach Mike Milbury. "It's been a long time since we've come from behind. I felt good for the team and for those people who came out to support us tonight.
"I think that we deserved to win the hockey game. They have world-class offensive talent, but they only finished with 20 shots. So I thought we did what we needed to do against them and that was to buckle down defensively," he added.
Pavel Bure scored twice for the Canucks, who squandered a two-goal lead and had their three-game road winning streak snapped.
"We stopped working," Hirsch said. "You've got to play 60 minutes of hockey. We played only maybe 15 to 20. ... We didn't play that well in our own zone. You can't give up a goal-scoring chance like that in overtime."
Bure's second goal, a power-play marker with 13:48 left in the second period, extended Vancouver's lead to 4-2. But Palffy cut the margin to one just over two minutes later when his waist-high slap shot from the slot beat Hirsch.
New York tied it on Travis Green's power-play tally at 6:15 of the third period. King had the puck behind the net and centered it to Green, whose shot from the doorstep made it just inside the far goal post.
Randy Wood's goal 90 seconds into the first period staked the Islanders to a 1-0 lead, but Bure tied it at 4:23 when he beat goalie Tommy Salo with a blast from the top of the right circle. Alexander Mogilny put home a short backhander just over two minutes later for his seventh goal and a 2-1 Vancouver lead.
King's power-play goal with 5:52 to go in the period lifted New York into a 2-2 tie, but the Canucks took the lead again at 2:28 of the second as Markus Naslund converted Mike Sillinger's centering pass into his sixth goal.
Vancouver coach Tom Renney was less than pleased with his team's performance.
"I'm not sure either team can really be thrilled with the way the game was going. I thought that the Islanders picked it up and thought they had a shot at it and played with a little more determination than we did, to say the least," he explained. "When you look at that, they were the team that should've won (and) did win. I can't even suggest (we had) a let-up because I don't think we came out to win this hockey game."
Jon's 3 stars:
1. Mike Fountain
2. Scott Walker
3. Alexander Mogilny
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